How much space does iMessage data occupy on your Apple device?

While chatting with a fellow coworker yesterday, he mentioned that he was perplexed on why the storage space on his iPhone 5 seemed to inexplicably disappear. After examining the storage options (which can be accessed by going to Settings → General → Usage → Storage), he found a significant chunk of data being taken up by the iMessage app. Almost two gigabytes of data!

I took a look at my own usage and discovered something equally crazy.

Almost 5GB of space on my iPhone 5 is taken up by iMessage. I do realize that iMessage saves all your conversations (which would be much more useful if search worked better), but I guess I didn't realize how much space all the photos, videos, screenshots, and animated GIFs take up. (I send a lot of animated GIFs).

I may have to wipe out this data and start over. That's an incredible amount of space. How much space is taken up on your iOS device by iMessage?

I'm only at 2.4GB right now and I've restored my phone from my 3G to 4 to 5s. Dave obviously sends more .gif's than I and is probably way more popular, but I'd guess that iMessaging is the least of your worries with a capped plan. I still text quite a bit and I've noticed that sent images are downsized on the other side which should mean that my 2.4GB is really a bit less that on the other side.

I'm at 4.1 GB. I also send loads of photos and videos (not so many gifs, even though they're awesome sauce), but thankfully still have an unlimited data plan since I pay full freight for phone upgrades.